Daniel Stockberger, striding across the finish line in a personal-best time, thought he had it.

The former McCutcheon state champion and Indiana University runner caught his breath on the track at St. Louis University High School on June 6. He estimated he’d beaten his elusive goal in the mile by about one second.

When the times began to scroll, Stockberger looked up at the scoreboard, then walked away with little reaction.

4:00.06.

Now running with Team Indiana Elite, a Bloomington-based club for national and international-level runners, Stockberger came within seven hundredths of a second of becoming the ninth alumnus of an Indiana high school — and 421st American — to run a sub-four minute mile.

Four other runners broke four minutes in that mile, and another finished in 4:00.01. Stockberger believes he’ll eventually join them, as he strives to break physical and mental barriers in pursuit of that goal and all of the others beyond it.

“It’s the next big goal,” the 25-year-old Stockberger said. “Once I can get over that barrier ... I should be in shape and capable of going faster and moving on to the next goal.”

In 2007, Stockberger became the first male Tippecanoe County athlete in 38 years to repeat as a track and field state champion. He won the 800 meters as a junior and a senior, cruising to a 10-meter victory over future Indiana and Team Indiana Elite teammate De’Sean Turner for the second title.

Stockberger also excelled at longer distances, finishing sixth at the state cross country meet as a senior to lead McCutcheon to fifth place. He ran both cross country and track and field at Indiana and earned three All-America certificates as part of the Hoosiers’ distance medley relay. But Stockberger, who missed one season of competition with a medical redshirt, believed he failed to reach his potential.

“I underachieved in college,” Stockberger said. “Part of that was because I didn’t really know what I was capable of all the time. Sometimes you put mental barriers on certain things to reach simple goals. Like running under 1:50 in the 800. That’s something I should have done in my first two years, but it took until my fifth year.”

Stockberger was still in high school when former Indiana track and cross country coach Robert Chapman and his then-assistant, Stephen Haas, formed Team Indiana Elite in 2006. In addition to providing coaching and a competitive training environment, the team attracts sponsorships and helps the runners find opportunities to financially support themselves through racing.

“Smaller contracts are not enough to support yourself fully,” said Haas, now the Team Indiana Elite head coach as well as an agent for Total Sports Management. “The support of the group allowed us to run and train in a more professional environment.”

Already friends with the coaches and runners, Stockberger saw Team Indiana Elite as a convenient and cost-effective way to continue running. He works part-time at Indiana Running Company, a Bloomington running store, where his bosses have told him to make sure his running career is a priority.

Stockberger says it’s a “semi-professional” running career financially, but not in terms of focus.

“Pretty much everything I do revolves around getting the most out of my training and being able to be involved and compete,” Stockberger said.

Many races in which Stockberger competes offer little or no financial reward. His more lucrative running assignments come from “pacing” — running specific, predetermined splits to give the top competitors, who are often going after records or elite times, someone to chase.

Fittingly, those pace runners are known as “rabbits.” Pacers are often paid according to how well they met their target times — the average is about $1,500 — and Haas said Stockberger is earning a reputation “around the world” as a reliable pacer.

“I’m over my head racing in some of those races,” Stockberger said. “It’s nice to get in there and work on getting used to the nerves but on a bigger stage.”

Lafayette Jeff grad Tito Medrano was a friendly rival of Stockberger’s in high school before leaving for his own career at Syracuse. Now in his first season as a Team Indiana Elite runner, Medrano knows as well as anyone what makes his former foe such a strong middle distance threat.

“One, he has a ridiculous kick,” said Medrano, who ran a 4:05 mile in college but specializes in longer distances. “I’ve definitely, especially in high school, seen it plenty of times.

“He’s been injured so many times and come back and thrown down pretty fast times. Now that he has two years under his belt (with TIE), you can tell how strong he’s gotten because of the consistency in his training. He should be a force to be reckoned with in the next year or two.”

Stockberger believes his best races are ahead of him as well. First, he must solve a frustrating problem — one that has challenged middle distance runners throughout the sport’s history.

On May 6, 1954, British neurologist Roger Bannister became the first person to break the four-minute barrier in the mile. Previously, many believed the human body was simply incapable of running a four-minute mile. Since Bannister’s breakthrough, more than 1,300 men (no women, yet) have broken four minutes, and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj set the current record of 3:43.13 in 1999.

By comparison, more than 3,100 people are known to have reached the summit of Mt. Everest — the first coming one year prior to Bannister’s run. While four minute miles are not uncommon at the elite level — three of Stockberger’s Team Indiana Elite teammates have done it — it remains a cherished threshold.

“The mile is that odd distance in track that doesn’t get raced at international events, per se,” said McCutcheon cross country coach Larry Boener, a former miler himself at Plymouth High School. “You go to the Olympics, you go to the world championships, even the U.S. championships, the distance is 1,500 meters.

“But worldwide, four minutes is still that benchmark for middle distance runners. If you can say you cracked four in the mile, that puts you in rare company.”

Stockberger said he didn’t think much about the four-minute mile until his college teammates began running those times. He ran a 1,500 time equivalent to running a four-minute mile during his final season at Indiana and his personal best in that event — 3:39.79 — projects to about a 3:57 mile time.

On June 5, Stockberger arrived at the Nike Festival of Miles in St. Louis believing his day had come. He’d be running in a fast mile with $4,600 in guaranteed prize money — plus a $1,000 bonus for anyone who broke 2:01 in the first 800 meters or four minutes in the mile, or who broke the meet record of 3:55.29.

Stockberger expected a fast first lap, and his competitors obliged.

“My intent was to go out hard because I needed to get in the top couple of places and stick there,” Stockberger said. “The first lap was a little quicker than I expected and still should have been manageable, but I let it get in my head. I thought, ‘I need to slow down here.’ ”

Boener, watching from the stands as Stockberger ran strong and smooth through three laps. By Boener’s watch, he entered his final 400 meters at about 2:58. With a 60-second closing lap, Stockberger would join the four minute fraternity.

But when Stockberger crossed near where Boener was seated, about 300 meters from the finish, his former coach noticed a slight struggle to maintain stride length and knee drive. Boener couldn’t see the finish line clearly when Stockberger crossed, but his watch read 3:59.

“I went running over there to see if I could see the times scroll on the clock,” Boener said. “As I run over to the finish line, I see Danny, and he’s not celebrating. He’s just kind of walking across the field. I think, maybe he’s just emotionally and physically drained. Then I got over there and read the time.”

Boener, unsure of what to say to Stockberger about his 4:01.06, send his 9-year-old son, Erik, over with a consoling hug.

“As his coach and for him, my heart just kind of dropped,” Boener said. “I have never, ever, ever in my life — if a kid does what they’re supposed to do and does what they’re capable of and runs their best — I’ve never been disappointed in a kid. But by God, at times I am disappointed for kids, and that was one of them. I looked at that time and went, ‘Oh, poor kid.’ ”

Medrano said he and his teammates, confident that Stockberger would eventually put that near-miss behind him, joked that he “should have leaned, or should have dove.” He’s seen first-hand how symmetrical, almost legendary numbers like the four-minute mile can become a mental block for a runner, but he also says they’re typically temporary.

“Once he starts doing that, and think it happens next year, he’ll start beating some of the big track clubs like the Nike teams and guys who have established themselves as the best middle-distance guys,” Medrano said.

Stockberger also took the moment in stride, taking solace in his new personal best. He looks at that day as just a mediocre performance instead of the very good one it could have been — and a learning experience.

“Plenty of guys that finished behind me, maybe three or four of them, have run under four before,” Stockberger said of his St. Louis competitors. “Sometimes you don’t worry about the times or the splits and focus on running the race the way you intended to. It’s covering your moves when they’re made and paying attention and kind of zoning out on the times.”

Stockberger qualified in the 1,500 meters for the USA Track and Field Championships in 2013. He chose to skip that event this season and on July 1 flew to Europe, where his racing itinerary included possible stops in Italy, Belgium, Sweden and Ireland over a three-week stay.

He isn’t expected to run the mile overseas, but hopes to benefit from the 1,500 competition and international exposure. Haas believes Stockberger can eventually run the Olympic ‘A’ standard time in the 1,500 (it was 3:39 in 2012), which would set him up for a possible spot on the Olympic team with a top-three finish at the 2014 Olympic trials.

“Once he has a breakthrough, things will just start falling into place a little bit more,” Haas said. “Part of the process too is taking steps. For some people it comes a little faster, and for some people you take a little off at a time until you’re comfortable enough to do it.

“Confidence plays a big role with Danny and when he’s confident and things are going well he can race very well. Little missteps or whatever can shake him. In this sport, that happens all the time.”

Stockberger thinks he may run the mile at events in Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor, Mich., later this season. When his physical preparation and mental focus synch up, he can move to the next stage of his career.

“It’s kind of surprising that I haven’t gotten it yet,” Stockberger said. “I’ve been in shape to do it before and I am now. Sometimes it’s a little bit of a mental barrier.”